Ontario Government Scraps Price Cap Portion of Ticket Sales Act

Last year, Ontario's Progressive Conservative government suspended part of a law that would outlaw the resale of tickets at more than 50 percent above face value last year. Now, the government has announced it will be scrapping the rule entirely.

The decision to scrap the Ticket Sales Act rule was announced in the government's new budget, the Canadian Press. Today, Government and Consumer Services Minister Bill Walker called the particular rule "unenforceable," adding, "It was like a lot of things with the Liberals. It was a nice soundbite, but there was no enforcement."

NDP leader Andrea Horwath expressed disappointment with the decision. "Maybe [Premier] Doug Ford and his rich friends can go and watch all kinds of sports games that they want, but most people struggle to even afford to go to one sports game or one form of entertainment a year," she said. "Saying that it's not enforceable is just a cop out."

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser added, "What we originally [wanted] with the bill was to say we want to be fair. It should be accessible to people. They shouldn't have to pay two or three times the face value."

The budget also removes a requirement for ticket resellers to disclose their name, location and contact information, so long as they made a written guarantee that a full refund will be provided if the event is cancelled or the ticket is counterfeit.

Additional changes to the Ticket Sales Act include primary ticket sellers to disclose how many tickets are going on sale, should they be sold in batches.

Upon suspension of the rule last July, Ticketmaster Canada chief operating officer Patti-Anne Tarlton told the CBC that the move "is a very rational and prudent decision," while StubHub spokesperson Cameron Papp wrote in a statement that "StubHub is pleased that the recently elected Ontario government has taken appropriate steps to ensure ticket transactions continue to occur on platforms that provide vital consumer protections for fans of live events."